"The apostles and the
elders... agreed to send some delegates chosen from among themselves to
Antioch, together with Paul and Barnabas." (Acts 15:22)
Most of you may already know that it was announced about a month
ago that I will be reappointed ("sent")
by our Bishop to serve as Senior Pastor of Cornerstone UMC in Newnan, GA effective
July 3rd this summer. While
Trish and I are sad to be leaving Lawrenceville (our final Sunday here will be
May 29th), we are confident that we have accomplished what God sent
us here to do, and are also looking forward to the opportunities and possibilities
for ministry in the place to which we (like Paul and Barnabas) are being sent. In addition, I strongly believe that the
person God is sending to follow me as your new Senior Pastor – Rev. Dr. Cyndi
McDonald -- is His choice to lead you into the next stage of your future.
Of course, the process of moving (or "reappointing") pastors every so often (called the "Itinerancy") is one of the unique
qualities of being a United Methodist pastor and congregation. Based on the early church model of
"sending/appointing" leaders, while it’s often difficult when there
is a pastoral transition, it does mean that our churches don't need to have
"search committees" or hire interim pastors, and pastors don't have
to go "sell" themselves on the "open market" in order to
find a new church. Instead, "no church is ever without a pastor,"
and "no pastor is ever without a
church."
What's more is that since no single pastor possesses all the leadership qualities necessary
to lead an individual church, having multiple pastors over time helps our
church to be better than if it merely had one pastor. My grown daughter once explained to a friend
that our United Methodist system of moving pastors is like building a
house: we wouldn’t want only a plumber
doing all the construction work.
Instead, to have a complete home, we need plumbers, electricians,
carpenters, “floor-installers”, roofers, etc., each to bring their own unique
skills to the work of building the house.
So it is with the building of God’s church: over the course of
several pastoral tenures (over, say, 20-30 years), a congregation led by
several pastors will be more well-balanced and “complete” than one where only
one or two pastors have served. Some
pastors are better speakers; some are better organizers and/or leaders; others are
more people-oriented; some excel at visioning or problem-diagnosis; while others
are better with evangelism, missions; discipleship, etc. ALL of these are important to have over the
life-span of a congregation, but different pastors are appointed by God through
our system to bring differing skills and strengths needed by a congregation at
differing seasons in its history.
Most importantly, many of you have heard me say that when our
Itinerant system works properly, it encourages congregations to be built around the people, rather than around a particular pastor. In doing
so, it lessens the likelihood that church members turn the pastor into an idol
by becoming merely a "cult following" of that pastor. While our system is certainly challenging
when there are transitions, hopefully you can see that there are plenty of good
reasons to have it, as well.
That said, there’s been a lot accomplished in my tenure as your
Senior Pastor that I want to celebrate with you. For example, on my “watch”, together…
● We weathered and grew from the challenges and opportunities of the
global COVID pandemic (that we’re only now just beginning to emerge out of). While there have been many who questioned
some of the decisions we made during it, I am confident that we did everything
God wanted and needed us to do both to keep people as safe as possible (“do no
harm”, after all, is the first “rule” of Methodist Christianity), and to help remind
us of the true meaning and purpose of “church.”
For example, through it all, together we were reminded that God is
not confined to a building/facility, or to “the way we’ve always done things.” To the contrary: we learned that we can worship God and Jesus
both outside and online in our homes (like the early church!); that we can
connect with one another through things like “Parking Lot Fellowship”, drive-up
children’s movies, and “drive-thru Trunk-or-Treat”; how to celebrate digital Holy
Communion, Ash Wednesday “Ashes to Go,” and to grow spiritually in online Bible
Studies and Sunday School; our children’s, student, and music departments even learned
how to do “socially distant” ministry (and we all learned what that
phrase was and meant in the process!). There was truly no end to the creativity
and flexibility that our staff and volunteers displayed to help us get us
through the once-in-a-lifetime, unique ministry challenges of the pandemic.
● We constituted several versions of our Vision team to help us to
more accurately understand and claim our church’s unique MISSION (“People. Doing Life
Together. Connecting All Through Christ.”) and VISION for the future (the six strategic direction areas discerned
by our ReThink Church Task Force, adopted by Leadership Council, and recently
shared in worship – if you missed them, find a video about those HERE). I am especially excited for McKendree about these six areas, as I feel like they are mini-descriptions of precisely what God has in mind for its future. In that sense, though, I also feel perhaps like Moses who led his people out of Egypt (i.e., "the way we've always done things"), through the wilderness (i.e., the COVID pandemic), and was allowed to draw within sight of the "promised land" (i.e., our six strategic direction areas) but not to enter it.
● We were guided to form our church’s “Embracing Race Together in Christ” (ERTC) ministry team in response
to the racial divisions highlighted over the past few years to help us address
the continued racial and ethnic inequities in our community and world (Read
more about that team HERE). To date, this team has sponsored at least
nine different projects and initiatives to do this, with more to come.
● We installed new technologies, equipment and renovations for
ministry, including: new lighting and digital equipment in the Sanctuary for a
better livestream experience; new equipment in our Virtual Conference Room
(Room 311-312) for hybrid in-person and online meetings; installed digital
video and locks on some of our doors for enhanced physical safety for our weekly
staff and volunteers; selling what we called the “Brighton property” to help
reduce our mortgage debt; and we renovated the Lockridge Fellowship Hall for
our student ministry.
● While the challenges we’ve recently faced also meant we went
through a time of spiritual and numerical “pruning”, we were reminded that God
can and does work even through painful experiences such as these to help us
become who we need to become for Him, and that “bigger is not always better.”
● We oversaw a reconstitution of our church’s staff, saying “goodbye”
to several long-time staff members who either moved or felt called elsewhere,
while also welcoming several equally talented new staff members who are just as
excited to be working for God’s kingdom here.
● We provided direct leadership and guidance to several ministries
(like our Stephen Ministry and Missions Council) to help them discern new
directions for their future effectiveness.
● We prioritized the paying down of our mortgage debt so that we
now owe about $850,000 debt on our facility.
● We introduced church leadership to the healthier and more
biblically sound process of decision making by Consensus.
● Even in the midst of two very challenging pandemic years, we welcomed
129 new members into our community of faith (61 by first-time profession of
faith in Jesus!)
All of these are just a few reasons that I can, with confidence,
say I feel that I’ve accomplished what the Lord sent me here to accomplish with
and among you. But even as we celebrate
these things, I ask that you please pray not only for me and my family as we
prepare to move to a new field of ministry, but also for Cyndi as she prepares
to arrive and begin leading you in July.
Always remember that God loves you and I do, too!
"If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17) 
